


The Start of Forever

by Grimmseye



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: It's a slow start but it's gonna pick up fast, M/M, Modern AU, Slice of Life, Tags to be added, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-09-28 06:56:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17178062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grimmseye/pseuds/Grimmseye
Summary: It begins with Kravitz making Taako cry and Lup shoving him onto a pile of legos. It begins with sleepovers to watch meteor showers on the grass. It begins with tears hidden in shoulders and tight, clinging arms.It ends.And it begins again.





	1. 0

**Author's Note:**

> A secret santa gift, not that it's much of a secret anymore!
> 
> This particular AU is still going to hold DnD races because writing the twins as humans is just wild. There is no magic and all lifespans are equivalent to a human's.

Kravitz has an unusual tendency of hating his friends before he likes them. It’s a constant in his life, not that he’ll come to see that for many, many years. The pattern will become visible, though, as each person that enters his life is met with animosity, before they wheedle their way into his heart and find a place to stay.

The pattern begins with a pair of elves. 

It’s the first day of school, which means Kravitz is dressed in his kindergarten best. There are colorful beads in his hair and he has a surplus of pencils to share, and this makes him a Cool Kid within the first five minutes of class. When it’s play time, he gets first pick, and drags out the box of lego. He shares them, of course, because his Mama taught him to.

The problem arrives when a little elven boy decides that he needs the blocks from  _ Kravitz’s  _ building, and begins to tear it apart without asking. He plucks the blocks apart and takes only one color, only  _blue._  Kravitz is a reasonable child, though. His Mama taught him that most problems can be solved with talking. She solves many peoples problems by dressing up pretty and talking to rooms full of people, and Kravitz wants to be like Mama, so he doesn’t yell or cry. He says, “Don’t do that, please.”

The elven boy is wearing clothes that are too big. His ears are too big, too. They’re like Kravitz’s, but longer, and they flop when he moves his head. He watches him for a long moment and then goes back to plucking the pieces out of Kravitz’s building to add them to his own. 

“I said please!” Kravitz insists. “You have to stop!” 

What the boy says is so quiet that he can’t hear. He doesn’t stop, though, and Kravitz worked hard on that, so Kravitz  _ has  _ to make sure he stops. So he grabs whatever the boy is making, but then the boy grabs it back, and the two of them are tug-of-warring until suddenly —

The blocks burst all over the place. It’s a brief shower of blue, one piece skittering across the floor, another bouncing off Kravitz’s knee. He’s left holding a small chunk of the boy’s creation. 

The elven boy begins to cry. Kravitz feels bad for a moment, but it's quick to give way to anger — it’s not  _ his  _ fault! He  _ asked  _ him to stop!

And now the teacher is here, when Kravitz  _wanted_ to make a good im-presh-yun. She says, "What's going on?" in this stern, disapproving voice, so now  _both_ of them will get in trouble when it's not Kravit'z fault.

Before Kravitz can say a word, though, there’s someone else rushing forward. She looks almost exactly like the boy, but her ears are  _up_ and she's glaring as she spits, “You made my brother cry!” before she pushes Kravitz to the ground and directly on top of the scattered legos. 

They go to the principal’s office after that. 

All three of them are teary-eyed by the time Mama gets there. The principal won’t let them talk to each other, because the first time the girl started yelling, so Kravitz stares at his knees and sniffles and tries to look as sad as he feels so Mama will know that they were the bad ones.

“Their guardians haven’t answered the phone,” the principal murmurs, not quietly enough. Three sets of ears twitch. The twins huddle a little closer together. 

Mama murmurs some things to the principal, and then she’s heading towards them. Kravitz’s head flicks up immediately, voice scratchy as he goes,  _ “Mama —”  _

“Shhhh,” she soothes, and pets his hair. “Let me figure this out, crow.” 

He sniffs, but he nods, and his Mama kneels down. “My name is Raven,” she tells the twins. “What are yours?” 

They’re both quiet. They look at each other. 

“Lup,” says the girl. 

“Taako,” mumbles the boy. 

“Okay, Lup, Taako,” she says. “Can one of you tell me what happened?” 

“He —” Kravitz starts, but then Mama gives him the Look and he slumps back into his chair, crossing his arms. 

“Taako?” She prompts. 

He’s quiet. His too-big ears droop, and he stares at his knees. He mumbles when he talks, and doesn’t pronounce his ‘th’s correctly. “I needed blue legos and I didn’t have enough.” 

“He took mine,” Kravitz can’t stop himself from saying. Mama gives him another Look, but she sighs, and she nods. 

“Is that what happened?” 

“Yes,” Taako whispers. 

“And then what?” 

And they explain how the building broke into pieces, and how Lup shoved Kravitz, and Kravitz is sure to tell her that it hurt  _ very much _  when he fell __ and even shows her the bandaid he needed. 

Mama looks at the three of them and says, “I think all three of you could have done better. Am I right?” 

“But —” Kravitz protests.

“He —” Lup starts. 

“Am I right?” 

All three of them mumble, petulant,  _ “Yes.”  _

“How?” Mama lifts Kravitz’s chin. He avoids her eyes and sniffles again, but it doesn't work. “You start, crow.” 

So Kravitz huffs, “I shouldn’t have taken the legos from you.” 

“Taako?” 

He’s quiet. It takes a long while, but Mama waits, and eventually he whispers, “I should have asked.” 

“Good. Lup?” 

“I shouldn’t have pushed Kravitz.” She crosses her arms and puffs a breath through her nose. 

“There you go.” Mama gives them a ruffle to the hair one by one. “So what do you all have to say?” 

It’s a mumbled chorus of  _ sorries  _ that Kravitz doesn’t  _ entirely  _ mean. They started it, and he did ask Taako to stop. But he doesn’t argue with Mama, and he  _ guesses  _ he can at least accept the twins’ apologies. 

He goes home with Mama, who swings him as they walk so Kravitz can pretend he’s flying. Then they're in the car, driving home, and Kravitz is humming along to a song he saw on the TV the day before. And then, as they pull up in the driveway, Mama says, “Why don’t you ask those two to play with you tomorrow?” 

Kravitz frowns and shakes his head. “He’ll steal my toys again.”

“You don’t know that yet. Give him another chance, chickling.” She opens the door for him so Kravitz can hop out. They’re greeted by a familiar call, the  _ Aw-aw-aw!  _ of a crow telling its family there’s food. Kravitz reaches into the car at once to shake some peanuts out onto the sidewalk, smiling as he watches three more crows come to perch on the roof, waiting.

“Kravitz?” Mama prompts. 

And Kravitz, more focused on watching the birds as they glide down to get their snack, says, “I will.” 

He does, of course, because Kravitz always listens to what Mama says. And it turns out that Taako  _ doesn’t  _ steal his toys again, he just insists that whatever they play, Lup gets to play, too. They start a game at recess and pretend that they all have superpowers — Taako can turn the grass into ice or stone, and Lup can use fire, and Kravitz can teleport and gets stronger in the dark, and they all fight monsters and they always win. 

And Kravitz knows that the three of them are going to be best friends, forever. 


	2. 1

Fridays are always the best days. Fridays mean that Kravitz and Lup and Taako all take the same bus home, the long trip that drops them right off outside the gates of his neighborhood. He has to stand on his tippy-toes to put in the numbers that open them, even though he’s the tallest of the three of them (a half inch does  _ so  _ count.)

Taako and Lup always always  _ always  _ stay over on the weekends. They’re six years old (Kravitz is six and a  _ half,  _ actually, he’ll be seven in wintertime) and this has been a routine for a whole year now. He always makes sure they have the good candies his friends like and Mama lets them pick out dinner — which is unfair that they  _ always  _ pick, but Mama says they don’t get to do that anywhere else so he guesses it’s okay. 

Sometimes their aunt Chilaada comes over and cooks for them all. She always has the three of them help her cook. Taako is the best at it, and Lup is better than Kravitz, so it’s not always fun but the food is always yummy. He thinks this weekend, Miss Chilaada is working, so it’s just him and Mama and his two best friends, and Mama’s not even home right now so it’s  _ just  _ them as he unlocks the door and lets them all inside.

Taako and Lup always say that Kravitz’s house is very big. The first time it was confused, awed, “Your house is  _ huuuuge!”   _ They’d pointed out all sorts of normal things like the pretty chandelier that hung over the dining table, and the fact they had a  _ dining  _ table and a  _ kitchen  _ table, and the glittery black glass in their fireplace. He’d always thought it was just a regular house until then. Or maybe Taako and Lup’s is just very small. 

Two people can pile onto Kravitz’s bed, but not all three. They carry blankets and pillows downstairs instead and lay them out on the floor, and they’ll move all the chairs into the living room to build themselves a fort. As they do that, Lup asks, “When’s your mom getting home?” 

“She says she’ll bring home dinner,” Kravitz tells them. “She’s been really busy!”

Taako tips his head to one side, his ears flopping. He’s helping tug a sheet over the back of one chair. “Whozit this time?” 

And Kravitz beckons them close. “She told me he’s  _ really  _ bad,” he says, voice hushed. Their eyes go wide at once.

“Did he kill someone?” Lup whispers. 

Kravitz isn’t sure, but he nods. Her ears perk up as she breathes,  _ “That’s so cool.”  _

And he beams because  _ yeah,  _ his Mama  _ is  _ cool. 

They finish setting up their fort and then head outside to play pretend. Their game is different now: their superhero forms got killed last time, but they’ve been re — rein — they’re back now, as the same people, but they don’t remember each other any more. 

“Okay,” Kravitz says. “We said you two are bad guys —” 

“We’re not bad guys!” Lup interrupts, which is  _ rude.  _ Kravitz purses his lips, but he stays silent. 

“It’s like robin hood,” Taako adds. “Maybe they say we’re bad but we’re not! We help people!” 

“But  _ you  _ work for the bad guys and think you’re good,” Lup says, pointing at Kravitz. 

And that’s the scene. Lup and Taako pretend to sneak around, picking the pockets from an invisible crowd until Kravitz sees. There’s a chase. They get on the swingset, pretending that the swings are their motorcycles as they try to escape. They climb the fort and slide down the slide. They run, until Kravitz tackles Lup, who yells for Taako to run, but of course Taako stays behind and offers to stay in his sister’s place, but Kravitz is devious and says  _ yes  _ only to take them both — 

“Wait!” Taako says, when Kravitz makes the little  _ chk  _ noise that says the handcuffs are on him now. Taako keeps his arms behind his back as he says, “How’re we gonna become friends like this?” 

Kravitz frowns. “Um…” He says. 

“Okay okay, let’s start over! Uncuff me.” Taako turns around, and Kravitz makes the  _ chk  _ noise again to take the handcuffs off. 

They go back a little bit: Kravitz has  _ just  _ arrested Lup, and Taako’s stayed behind, but he’s smart. His time on the street has taught him well, and when Kravitz goes to arrest him, he turns the tables! He handcuffs  _ Kravitz  _ instead and steals the keys to let his sister free, but Lup doesn’t want to just  _ leave  _ him. She pleads with him, she waves her hand around their make-believe world and says  _ “Is this okay?”  _ And Kravitz pretends to realize that  _ “No, it’s not,”  _ as he decides to change his ways and help them instead. 

They don’t stop playing until Mama gets home and calls them in, and then its three pairs of legs scampering inside and to the dinner table, and then they watch a movie before they get tired and slip into their fort to fall asleep. 

Weekends are the best. 

So he’s a little bit confused when it continues into the week _ day  _ this time. 

Kravitz loves his friends, and he knows that sometimes Taako and Lup need time apart from him. They spend three days out of the week every week together nonstop, sometimes Kravitz goes downstairs and Lup goes outside and Taako stays in the bedroom. So it’s not like he gets tired of them, he’s just confused: the weekend is over, so Taako and Lup should be going home. 

Instead, Mama shows up with some more of their clothes on Sunday night and tells them at the dinner table that their auntie is sick and needs to rest right now, and they’re going to stay with her until she’s better. 

It lasts them through the next weekend before the twins go home. By that point, they’ve been  _ wanting  _ to. Taako’s cried most nights wanting his aunt, missing her cooking. Lup hugs him tight but Kravitz can see that her lip is wobbling, too. 

When Miss Chilaada comes to pick them up, she looks different. Her cheeks are thin and when Lup and Taako throw themselves at her, she doesn’t laugh in her bright, cheerful way. She pats their heads and says, “I missed you, too, it’s okay,” in this wispy voice. She smiles, but her ears are low. 

Kravitz waits until they’re all gone to tug on Mama’s pants and say, “She looked gross.” 

Mama gives a little hiss, says, “Don’t be rude, crow.”

“She’s not here!” 

“It’s still not nice.” She rumples the top of his head until he ducks away. Then she hoists him up, Kravitz immediately hanging onto her, and she climbs the stairs as she says, “She’s not feeling very well, is all. She’s tired. The doctors say that she’ll be okay in a little bit, but right now Lup and Taako might be coming over more often.” 

Kravitz can’t complain about that, so he hums his understanding. She carries him to his room and tucks him into bed. A kiss on the forehead and a, “Goodnight,” that he echoes. 

Then, “Wait, Mama!” 

She turns, and Kravitz pulls his stuffed crow out from under the blankets, holding her up. “Nelly says goodnight!” 

There’s a quiet laugh. It reminds him of Miss Chilaada a little, and he wonders if Mama is  _ tired  _ too, like her.

He’s afraid, all of a sudden. “Mama?”

“Mm-hmm?” She leans in the doorway. 

“Are you gonna get sick like their auntie?” 

There’s a pause. Then she says, “Why are you worried about that, sweetie?”

“You said she’s tired.” Kravitz plays with Nelly’s wing. “You get tired, too. Are you gonna get sick?” 

And Mama slips back into his room and sits at the edge of his bed. “No, I’m not. It’s a different kind of tired, baby. When you play all day, you want to go to sleep immediately, right? That’s what it’s like for me. A very long day, and I just want to go to bed and —” She makes a snoring ‘ _ honk-shoo’  _ noise, loud, making Kravitz giggle. 

Then she says, “But Taako and Lup’s aunt can’t always get better just by sleeping. She needs medicine, too, and sometimes she’ll still feel tired.” 

“Gross.” Kravitz covers his mouth. 

“It’s good for you,” Mama snorts, poking his nose through his fingers.

“You just said it doesn’t work!” 

“It works when I give it to you!” She flicks his forehead and he yelps and hides under Nelly. His Mama laughs before she says, “But I’ll be fine, chickling. You shouldn’t be worrying about me.” 

He’s mussed up all the sheets, so she tucks him in all over again, she kisses his forehead and Nelly’s beak and then turns out the lights (but turns on the nightlight) and leaves the door cracked open. Kravitz snuggles into his pillow, arm curled loose around Nelly, and falls fast asleep, his worries all gone.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some little side notes/fun facts:
> 
> Two of these details actually come from roleplays I do. The superhero game mentioned in this chapter and the last is actually an AU focused around Lup and Barry. 
> 
> Also, the stuffed crow Nelly comes from an 8th bird Kravitz AU, in which he's a warlock and she's his familiar. Nelly is a nickname of Knell, as in "death knell."
> 
> This fic got a larger response than I'd been hoping for, so thank you so much! I hope you guys will continue to enjoy, and please let me know what you think! ^^


	3. 5

They’re ten years old, today. Kravitz, personally, cannot _imagine_ sharing a birthday, but neither of them seem to mind. His mom offers to throw them a proper party, invite their classmates, the whole shebang, but neither of them want anything more than a cake and their aunt to take a day off of work.

So that’s what his mom gives them. It’s just a quiet thing, no different from any other weekend beyond the small clusters of presents on the kitchen table, the cake (vanilla, pineapple filling on one half, strawberry on the other) in the fridge, and the smell of something _amazing_ baking in the oven. Kravitz’s mouth is watering already — he’s had their aunt’s turkey before, but only once.

Taako and Lup, as always, want to tear into their gifts immediately. They get two each to open ahead of time, one from their aunt, one from his mom. He watches as they don’t gently pop the folds of wrapping away from their tape, don’t take their time unveiling each gift, don’t even read the cards first. There are loud tears and glittery paper tossed onto the floor, delighted gasps as they see what’s underneath. Something about that pings as _rude_ to him, but he can’t help but be taken up by their excitement. It would be fun, wouldn’t it, to not worry about being _polite_ and just tear into the wrapping paper.

Taako and Lup both get small aprons from their aunt — purple and glittery for Taako, black with flames for Lup. The smaller boxes from Kravitz’s mom unveil matching tins of their favorite candies, cinnamon-flavored for Lup, sour-sweet for Taako.

“Probably shouldn’t have had them open those first,” Raven muses, as both of them immediately dig in. Their aunt in turn gives a tittering laugh.

“Taako, Lup,” she calls, “I gave you those aprons for a reason. Put them on and help with with the potatoes, alright?”

Both of them hurry to throw the straps over their necks, help each other tie bows at the back before scampering up onto the kitchen stools. Taako grabs a peeler and a potato as Lup holds the bowl to mash them. Kravitz trails away gets the table set — dinner will be ready soon. And he’s no good at cooking, regardless, no matter how much the twins try to teach him.

The beeping of the oven’s timer has all of them bolting to the table. His mom and their aunt are slower, taking the time to _carve_ the turkey and put the gravy into a fancy boat before setting it all down so they can feast.

It’s all _delicious_ of course. Miss Chilaa is the best cook he’s ever met, better than any restaurant chef, better even than his own mother. It takes a reminder that there’s still cake to slow him down at all.

Between dinner and cake comes _presents._ The vast majority are from their aunt, uncovering pretty little bracelets, new clothes, bottles of nail polish. Over the years, Kravitz started to _notice_ the difference between the presents he gets and the presents the twins get. He has a brand new viola and lessons to accompany it and nice shoes that don’t get holes in them within a few months. This year, the twins got a little bit _more_ than the last, but he doesn’t miss that the largest present, still unopened, had been purchased by his mom.

“This one’s from both of us,” Raven tells the twins, as they turn their sights on the box. Chilaa dips her head, smiling, but staring at the floor. There’s something strange in her expression, a knitted brow, the smile fading fast.

Kravitz is distracted from it quickly, though, because Taako and Lup are _shredding_ the wrapping paper with zeal. Lup uncovers it first, and squeals with excitement. It turns into a race to get the box uncovered, until both of them have their ears flapping and are throwing themselves at both woman with ecstatic _“Thank you!”_ s.

It’s a telescope. They only delay putting it together in favor of cake, singing the treacherous song, Kravitz giving a huge grin with the twins fix him with glares. They blow out all but one candle, five on each side, and Lup licks her fingers to extinguish the last as her aunt protests. Kravitz is feeling a little overfull by the time he’s finished his cake, but Taako and Lup are on their feet and vying for help setting up the telescope.

Meaning, of course, that the adults do all the work while the kids play. They’ll be too old for play-pretend soon, Kravitz muses. Once he’s eleven, he’ll have to start really growing up. For now, though? Lup has every intention of playing princess-knight to rescue her brother from the dragon — she has a new dress and a toy sword, and she chases Kravitz around the living room as both of them scream.

She ends up smacking him with the wrong edge of the sword. He yelps, “That _hurts!”_ and shoves her aside.

“I didn’t _mean_ to,” Lup grumbles, as Taako flits to Kravitz’s side. His ears pin back at the sight of blood welling between scraped-up skin.

It _stings,_ and Kravitz wants to be mad at her for swinging too hard — _again._ But. It’s their birthday. So Kravitz takes a deep breath and reminds himself it’s just an _accident_ as he says, “I’ll go get a bandaid.”

He has to pass through the family room to get up the stairs. His mom and Chilaa are both sitting on the carpet, the telescope mostly assembled but seemingly on pause as they talk. “— be able to pay you back,” Chilaa is murmuring.

“You don’t need to,” his mom insists. “You never let me do anything for those kids, I can pay for a _present,_ Chilaa.”

Her ears tuck downwards. “I appreciate it. I really do, Raven, I’ve never seen them so excited over a present before.” But the tone of her voice isn’t happy.

“You’re sure you won’t let me —”

“ — No.”

Kravitz slinks past them, his own ears pinned and wary. He creeps up the stairs, quick and quiet, to wash off his arm and pull a bandaid from the cabinet in the bathroom. It’s as he’s plastering it on, colorful birds now bright on his arm, that he hears his mom calling for them. Immediately there’s a loud, _“Kravitz!”_ from Lup, and the memory slips away as he scampers back down to meet them.

They set the telescope up out on the pavement of their backyard. The trickle of the pool joins with the cricket chirps, painting a peaceful night. The twins get the first peek up at the moon, almost full in the sky. They bicker back and forth, both of them insisting the other goes first until Kravitz just has them flip a coin for it.

Taako wins with heads. His ears perk, and there’s an incredulous, “ _W_ _hhhh —_ Lup! Lup, you’ve gotta —” He just pushes her forward to take her own look. Hers is a quiet reaction, gentle awe in her voice.

Then it’s Kravitz’s turn. The moon nearly fills his scope, silver and bright, the craters dotting its surface in splotches of gray. It’s gorgeous. Kravitz doesn’t know _what_ it feels like, but his chest is full.

The adults take their own turns, too, but leave them to their own devices soon. Raven and Chilaa bicker with each other — Chilaa insisting she help clean up, Raven insisting she lay down and let her take care of it. The three of them don’t pay any attention to it, though, all excited chatter and extra peeks at the moon.

Lup is the one who declares, “That’s what I want to do. I’m going to go to space.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Kravitz murmurs. “A rocket blew up once, you know. You could die.”

Taako’s ears bolt up in alarm. Lup scoffs though, says, “No I won’t. They’re _really_ smart, you know, they check their math like… like _a hundred_ times.”

“You need _math_ to go to space?” He wrinkles his nose. “That sounds boring.”

And Lup huffs, puts her hands on her hips. “Well, what do _you_ want to do, then? Cause Taako’s gonna be a chef, and _I’m_ gonna go to the moon.”

Kravitz frowns.

He could be an attorney like his mom, maybe. She says he could be a doctor, too. Someone who needs to learn a lot for a very long time, and makes a lot of money for it.

Does he _want_ that?

Kids at school have a million things they want to be: firefighters, astronauts, vets. What about him?

“I don’t know,” he says.

“Nothing?” Taako cocks his head. He sits down in the grass, saying, “How can you not want to be something?”

Kravitz just shrugs as he lays back beside him. “I ‘unno. I just can’t think of anything right now.”

“Just be Taako’s assistant,” Lup pipes up, unseen on Taako’s other side. “Then you guys can live together and _kiss."_

Taako makes a disgusted noise. “ _Gross_ arooni, Lulu.”

“What, you don’t wanna kiss Kravitz?”

“No! He’s my best friend, don’t be weird!”

“What about you, Kravitz? Do you wanna _smooch_ my brother?” Lup sits up, leaning over Taako as he squeals a protest and tries to push her over. “ _M-wah! M-wah! M-w —_ Hey!”

She lands, squished between Kravitz and Taako, face first in the grass. She pushes herself up, snapping, “Jerk!”

“You’re being gross,” Taako shoots back.

“Kravitz didn’t answer me,” Lup huffs, squirming around until both of the boys shift to give her room. “Do you wanna kiss Taako?”

Kravitz stares up at the sky. “I mean,” he starts. Pauses. Then, “My mom says I shouldn’t kiss anyone until I’m older. But no, not really. Not any more than I’d wanna kiss _you.”_

“Okay, yeah, that’s gross _."_ Lup sticks out her tongue.

"See?" Taako rolls over, propped up on one arm to look over the two of them, giving Lup a glare. She pushes him back over, and the three of them sprawl out in the grass, eyes turned towards the sky. The night is a stretch of ink, the moon and the city's glow dimming the stars. He watches one shimmer and pulse, radiant. They lay there, and a light streaks across the night sky. Kravitz points it out,  _a shooting star,_ and Lup explains it's a something burning up in the atmosphere, and then she starts chattering about asteroids versus meteors versus comets, and Taako calls her a nerd but he's clearly interested as well, and Kravitz listens quietly and hopes that everything they want in life, they'll get it, and that he can be there with them when they do. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've set up a general order in which I'm updating my fics so none of them will get neglected. As usual, let me know what you think, and thank you for reading <3


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